Hydropower

DOE announces first round prize winners for novel wave energy technologies

DOE announces first round prize winners for novel wave energy technologies
(Courtesy: Michael Olsen/Unsplash)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) announced Phase I winners of the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP) for concepts to harness and convert the power of ocean waves into usable energy.

Nineteen teams shared $285,000 in cash prizes for their novel distributed embedded energy converter technology (DEEC-Tec) concepts. DEEC-Tec concepts combine many small energy converters, often less than a few centimeters in size, into a single, larger ocean wave energy converter. This larger system could convert energy from a wide range of ocean locations and wave types.

During Phase I, competitors developed an initial DEEC-Tec concept, submitted a brief technical narrative representing their idea and innovation process, and completed a simplified technology performance level assessment to reflect their concept’s potential economic performance.

The following teams were each awarded $15,000 for their concepts:

  • Active Materials and Smart Living, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • Blackfish Engineering, Braintree, Mass.
  • Blue Lotus Energy, Adair, Ok.
  • Chemventive, Chadds Ford, Pa.
  • Condensed Wave Matter, Madison, Wis.
  • Elysium Robotics, Austin, Texas
  • FluxMagic, Portland, Ore.
  • Michigan Technological University and Arizona State University, Houghton, Mich.
  • PECWEC, Storrs/Mansfield, Ct.
  • PiezOrigami Team, Blacksburg, Va.
  • Pittsburgh Coastal Energy, Pittsburgh, Pa.
  • PSU_EnergyHarvesting from State College, Pennsylvania
  • RQR Wave Team, Longmont, Colo.
  • Soft Energy, Ithaca, N.Y.
  • Streaming Energy, La Jolla, Calif.
  • Team FUSION, Newport, Mich.
  • Water Bros Development, Charlotte, N.C.
  • WaveHarvest, Dallas, Texas 
  • Wave Grid, Galveston, Texas

Phase II of InDEEP is open and welcomes new and returning competitors. In Phase II, competitors will build and test a single energy converter designed to be part of a larger DEEC-Tec. Phase II submissions close on May 7, 2024. 

InDEEP is funded by WPTO and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories.  

Originally published by Elizabeth Ingram in Hydro Review.